The name's half the fun where this band's concerned. Formerly known as the Ashtray Baby Heads, the Heads morphed into the Butthole Surfers, a real parent-buster from a song about beach transvestites. Vocalist Gibson "Gibby" Haynes, guitarist Paul Lea… Read more
The name's half the fun where this band's concerned. Formerly known as the Ashtray Baby Heads, the Heads morphed into the Butthole Surfers, a real parent-buster from a song about beach transvestites. Vocalist Gibson "Gibby" Haynes, guitarist Paul Leary Walthall and drummer King Coffey were initially dubbed punk/hardcore, as demonstrated in the startling "The Shah Sleeps In Lee Harvey's Grave," but their songs were inspired by a variety of sources. Loping melodies, screaming guitar and Haynes' distorted vocals put the zany surfers into a category all their own. The Surfers (or do they prefer the Buttholes?) slid into the 1990s with sickening lyrics and attempted to make non-commercial bliss, but the band committed the ultimate sell-out: it signed with Capitol Records. The contract helped pump out the group's one modest radio hit in '96, "Pepper," from the Electric Larryland album.
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